If you have been following the news, there have been multiple reports out there from various tech leaders stating that the speed of artificial intelligence (AI) is moving too fast and that it is potentially so dangerous that it could kill all humans. They are also making ludicrous, unproven statements that the software has gained human level awareness.
Before I state why I think they put this out there, let’s for a moment pretend that this type of press release was from Chipotle and not Anthropic or anyone else. Imagine if a Chipotle press release said:
“We are selling so many burritos and there is a good chance that our burritos are going to give most people massive diarrhea and intestinal issues like nothing you have seen before. This illness will harm not only our customers, but people who have chosen to have nothing to do with us. We think there is at least a 1 in 3 chance that our burritos will kill most, if not all humans and greatly harm them in the process.”
Now if the CEO of Chipotle stated that, two things would happen.
- You would stop eating their product.
- They would get shut down or more likely, shut themselves down.
Now with these AI reports, there is one key component missing. They will tell you how dangerous their product is, but won’t tell you exactly how it will harm you. Others are speculating ways that the world could be harmed, but the CEO’s and other leaders of these companies are not specifying how.
And more importantly, they are not telling you to avoid their product and they are not themselves pulling the plug. Instead they are stating that their should be Government involvement in all of this and this comes from a joint statement from the biggest three players in AI.
Does that strike you as odd? It does to me. What I speculate is happening is that they are running out of money so they are setting themselves to be able to under-deliver on promises in the name of “safety” and by asking the Government to get involved, they are trying to set themselves up for a public bailout so they can keep things going but at a “responsible” pace. Profits are capitalism, debts are socialism for these billionaires.
The Big Mistake This Press Release Makes
One thing these high tech companies have in common is that they are all run by people who think (or at least act like) they are the smartest guy in the room. This happens a lot with billionaires. Being super rich does not equal being super smart. But they are smart enough to know that our press is a joke right now and will gladly publish click bait headlines instead of actually investigating claims.
They forgot one rule. They know what they know, but they don’t know what they don’t know. And what they do not understand is product liability law.
What they are admitting is that there product is dangerous and it is going to get more dangerous. So dangerous that it could and likely will kill people. What they are not doing is pulling the plug. So when their product does harm people, their press release can be used against them and it certainly will.
Can you imagine if Chipotle knew that their product was going to poison and kill people, but they continued to sell it any way? People would lose their minds and the lawsuits would be massive.
Now I don’t believe that these tech people truly believe what they are saying. It’s great marketing for them and helps further their goals. You can not convince me that Elon Musk would ever do the right thing for humanity. He has a proven track record of lying. Beyond that he is just a terrible person. And these “leaders” seem to have no concern about the environmental harm their products are doing either.
But if they did believe it, they would turn the products off until safeguards were in place or abandon it all together.
Terrible things have already happened from AI use. The worst among them has been teen suicides that appear to be encouraged by chatbots.
And in the future when something bad happens from AI whether it be a death or mistaken medical advice or you losing the money in your bank account or something else, when the leaders of these companies are put on the witness stand, a big part of the case will be that they knew their product could do something like this, but they kept going. And we know they knew about it because they literally shouted it to the world and made it a major news story.
There is precedent for this in many lawsuits, the most famous of all is the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit. That case turned into a multi million dollar claim because hidden corporate documents showed that McDonald’s leaders knew that they were making the coffee too hot and in a dangerous way, but kept going because it made them more money. That lawsuit will pale in comparison to what is coming for these AI companies.
You would not accept it if Chipotle kept going when they knew their products could harm you and you can bet that juries will not accept it when AI causes massive destruction in whatever form that takes place. In fact, it doesn’t need to be the doom and gloom that they are marketing, but other harm. And the words of their genius leaders will be what ultimately causes them to get destroyed in court. And I can only hope that the punitive damages end up being in the billions.